Team-Canada trade missions? ‘Not under my watch’ Fast says

Speaking at the Canadian Chamber of Commerce’s international trade day — where he gave his first official speech as trade minister almost three years ago — Ed Fast announced a pair of a high-profile visits a trade mission to Africa, and changes to the Trade Commissioner Service.

June will be particularly busy month.

From June 3 to 6, 70 Turkish business delegates are coming to Canada. That will take place roughly around the same time ministers and trade officials from ASEAN (The Association of Southeast Asian Nations) come to visit.

ASEAN members include Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia, and Indonesia, and free trade talks with the group could become a priority should the Trans-Pacific Partnership negotiations stall.

“When Canada started its aggressive engagement with that area of the world two years ago, we had our first face-to-face meeting… Two years ago we decided it would be a good idea for those (ASEAN) ministers to experience Canada first-hand, so we invited them,” Fast said.

“We’ll conduct what they refer to as a roadshow. We’re going to expose them to our Canadian businesses… Hopefully we’re able to do the matchmaking required to allow this relationship to flourish in the years to come.”

Fast’s travel schedule in the coming weeks and month reflects efforts to increase Canadian exports from SMEs by taking a sector-specific approach under the Global Markets Action Plan

He’ll be in China next week with a group of small and medium-sized Canadian soil remediation, water and wastewater treatment companies for a six-day trade mission. In late June, fast said, the destinations will be South Africa, Burkina Faso and Tanzania with other companies from the mining, oil, gas, and renewable energy sectors.

The approach, Fast argued, is an improvement on the massive Team Canada trade delegations that were favoured by the Liberals.

“We are focusing on specific sectors where Canada has specific strengths. Now, some have said, ‘When are you going to hold another Team Canada mission with hundreds of companies on board?’ And I say, ‘Well, not under my watch. And the reason is that we don’t appreciate these large high-profile missions,” he said.

“When you join one of our trade missions, we want to make sure you get one-on-one attention from our trade commissioners — that you get one-on-one opportunity to meet key decision-makers in that new marketplace. We want to make sure that you get face-time with me as minister or Minister (Joe) Oliver or any of the other ministers that lead trade missions around the world.”

Moving quickly on a recommendation made by the Chamber of Commerce in a report it released earlier this week, Fast also announced that 25 trade commissioners will soon be embedded in sector associations to ensure they’re better attuned to the needs of Canadian companies.

“They will act as bridges between our Canadian businesses and government agencies such as Export Development Canada, the Business Development Bank of Canada, and the Canadian Commercial Corporation,” he said.

“These embedded positions will also allow our Trade Commissioners to gain better insight into the export needs of individual sectors.”